Abstract

While many global internet services today could be perceived as being largely managed top-down without much appreciation of local control, recent examples such as location-based data stores implemented in cities around the world suggest opportunities for novel forms of management of data with relevance to a local context. We argue that such localization of ubiquitous system management provides an opportunity in supporting local off-line interaction and ‘community building’ and that urban development, which requires interaction between members of different communities, presents an interesting case to support this claim.